Runis
Dark Jedi Master Runis was a powerful dark side user who captured Xar Kerensky and trained him as his student and as an assassin, through whom he would exact revenge on the Brotherhood of Darkness Council members for spurning him years before. Though Runis' training was successful, Xar turned on his evil master and finally killed him, ending Runis' plans. Background Aren Runis was born in 66 BBY and came from a family with a long history of Force-Senstives, descended from and named after Aryn Runis, the Jedi Exile who restored the order and joined Revan in eliminating a secret Sith threat in the Unknown Regions. Nearly 4,000 years later, Runis was born. His family, living on the edges of Wild Space, had always been good at keeping their powers secret from the Empire. Runis, however, broke the long-standing tradition of his family by venturing out into space. He also broke custom in another way: he decided to study the Dark Side of the Force. In actuality, Runis wished to study all aspect of the Force, and he became obsessed with the accumulation of arcane Force knowledge and Force artifacts. He traveled across the galaxy, spending significant time in the Unknown Regions, hunting for rare and legendary artifacts and studying the philosophies of many different Force-based traditions. He rejected the ideas of the Jedi and refused to believe the philosophies of the Potentium; Runis' first choice would always be for the Dark Side. It held powers that no other tradition could match, a near limitless realm of abilities mixed with the arcane magics of the Sith, Krath and others. Quest for Force Knowledge Runis became involved with the Brotherhood of Darkness, still in secret operation despite the near-destruction of the order on Ruusan. He rose through their ranks, earning the rank of Dark Jedi Master. But Runis was always a loner; he spent his time away from the dark halls of the Brotherhood and their academies. As his knowledge increased, he began to experiment with various methods of using the Force. He found a way to harness the energies of the dark side without forcing himself into a state of anger or rage. He began to practice his dark side powers simply for the evil it produced. Along his journeys Runis came across the Crinn, an evil offshoot of the Barabel race created by the Shok'Thola Sado. He managed to avoid their wrath by providing information they desired, and in exchange they provided him with a ship, a powerful medium transport that he named the Nightmare. Also, somewhere along the line, Runis came across a copy of the Elfodd Contingency. He learned about the existence of the True Force and experimented with it, but to him it was an undesirable alternative to the dark side powers he had discovered. He could, however, readily switch between the two, which gave him an edge over any opponents he faced. Betrayal by the Brotherhood However, about this time the Brotherhood of Darkness found out about Runis' arcane studies, and grew fearful of him. They had him arrested and brought back to their Dark Hall for trial, intending to have him executed immediately and end the threat he represented to them. However, Runis surprised them by escaping from their clutches and fleeing the Dark Hall, even as the Republic ships he had tipped off to the Brotherhood's location opened fire on the Dark Hall and destroyed the entire installation. However, some of the Dark Council escaped alive, and this enraged Runis. He vowed to one day have his revenge. Later, Runis traveled to Epsilon Sector to study the legends of a great war and powerful Force-users there. He was found there by General Akira, who noticed Runis' powers and offered him to become an agent of the Altarin'Dakor. Runis agreed readily, following Akira to his base and learning about the Altarin'Dakor, who used the True Force. He also discovered what he'd been searching for: hidden information regarding the planet Varnus and its deeply-buried Force traditions. Satisfied with what he had learned, Runis backed out on the deal, betraying Akira and fleeing. Then, when Akira orchestrated the devastation on Varnus in 1 BBY, Runis hatched a plan to capture Varnus' crown prince, Xar Kerensky, whom he knew by this point must have vast Force-potential. He had Kerensky ambushed, with the intention of rescuing him, but the plan worked almost too well; Xar was critically injured, and only by using Dark Side Healing was Runis able to save him. The Training of Xar Kerensky and Final Fate When Xar awoke, he found himself in the clutches of the dark Jedi. Runis told Xar that he would make him his apprentice, teaching him all of his powers and training him as an assassin to exact his revenge on the Dark Council. He then put Xar through a brutal training regimen, forcing him to grow quickly and develop his powers for use by Runis. Xar performed well, exceeding his master's expectations in all areas, and Runis continued to pour his knowledge and wisdom into the young man. But, in the end, Runis underestimated his apprentice. Though he knew Kerensky hated him, he did not expect Xar to try and kill him so soon. When Kerensky tried, Runis determined that Xar could not be trusted. A fight ensued, and in a stroke of luck Xar struck a fatal blow. As Runis died, Xar unknowingly employed another power he'd learned from his master, that of Absorb Force Energy. He absorbed the majority of Runis' Force powers into himself, vastly increasing his own and imprinting fragments of Runis' mind and memories onto his own. Then, with his master out of the way, Xar took his master's ship and returned to his home planet of Varnus. Personality and Traits Runis was a powerful Force user, and though he knew about many different ways of accessing the Force, he preferred the Dark Side more than anything else. He was obsessed with obtaining Force knowledge and artifacts, and spent most of his life traveling the galaxy in search of them. He kept vast records on his ship, the Nightmare, encoded heavily so that even Xar was unable to access some of them. Among these were rumored to be a copy of the Elfodd Contingency, which if Xar had discovered years before meeting Icis Novitaar, his life might have played out in a very different way. Runis was tall and well-built, with short, gray hair and a gray beard that traced the edges of his jaws and chin. He was ruthless in his training, but held a wicked sense of humor as well. Xar thought that his master had gone crazy due to his Dark Side use, but in later years he began to see method behind Runis' madness, and discovered that his former master had been far craftier, and more involved in galactic events, than he'd ever guessed. Runis had a custom lightsaber made from Crinn metals, with spike-like protrusions extending all around it, and a deep purple blade. It also sported a poisoned spike on the back end, which could be shot out to surprise an unsuspecting enemy. It was this secret weapon that Xar used to kill his master, then threw him out of the ship's airlock, ending the scourge of Runis on the galaxy and his life. Category:New pages Category:Characters